Enzo Maresca is set to become Manchester City's new manager and could bring in half a dozen of his staff members with him
Enzo Maresca (centre) with his backroom team, from left, Roberto Vitiello, Michele De Bernardin, Marcos Alvarez, Danny Walker, Willy Caballero and Javi Molina after Maresca wo the Premier League manager of the month award in September 2024 while at Chelsea
Enzo Maresca (centre) with his backroom team, from left, Roberto Vitiello, Michele De Bernardin, Marcos Alvarez, Danny Walker, Willy Caballero and Javi Molina after Maresca wo the Premier League manager of the month award in September 2024 while at Chelsea
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Manchester City will have a new look next season with a new boss for the first time in a decade. Enzo Maresca's appointment is expected to be confirmed imminently with the Italian having the unenviable task of replacing Pep Guardiola at the Etihad.
Maresca will benefit from his time spent on Guardiola's staff in the treble winning season as well as his management roles and successes at both Leicester City and Chelsea. Guardiola said on his departure that City's new boss must be his own man and Maresca will be allowed to bring in an almost entirely new backroom team after the Blues confirmed a host of staff exits this week.
That list included Guardiola's right-hand man Manel Estiarte and fitness coach Lorenzo Buenaventura, who have been with him for all of his time in Manchester. Goalkeeping coach Xabi Mancisidor is also leaving, having spent even longer than that at the club after joining while Manuel Pellegrini was in charge.
Guardiola's No.2 Pep Lijnders and assistant Kolo Toure are also off, despite only spending a year on the backroom staff. Toure had been promoted from the academy staff while Lijnders arrived after a brief stint managing RB Salzburg in 2024 and both were key parts of Guardiola's staff this season but are moving on.
Lijnders has spoken this week of always feeling like City was a short-term project given his wife and children remained in the Netherlands while he worked with Guardiola.
"My wife and I want a permanent place for our growing sons," he told Dutch publication AD. "Moving back to England for years is no longer an option. Without my family, I wouldn't do a second year anyway. The club wanted to move forward, offered me a position on a new manager's staff, or the chance to become head coach at a foreign club within the City Football Group."
Instead Lijnders departs meaning the only senior member of staff who ended this season at the Etihad and is set to begin next is set piece coach James French, who arrived from Liverpool last summer.
The number of vacancies paves the way for Maresca to bring in his own staff with several looking certain to join City having worked with the Italian at Leicester and Chelsea.
Roberto Vitiello was Maresca's assistant at both of his previous managerial jobs in England and played alongside him in Palermo in Italy. He had a lengthy playing career in Italy making nearly 500 senior appearances, the majority of which coming in Serie B.
Former City goalkeeper Willy Caballero could make a return to the Etihad as an assistant having worked with Maresca at Leicester and Chelsea. He was a League Cup winner with the Blues during a playing career that took him to Malaga in Spain where he played with Maresca.
Another former City staff member could return as first team coach. Danny Walker worked alongside Maresca in the City academy before moving to Peterborough United. Maresca hired him at Leicester and Chelsea.
Goalkeeper coach Michele De Bernardin is another Maresca ally as is fitness coach Marcos Alvarez, who first worked with the former Chelsea boss at Parma, along with Javier Moline Caballero, who was an analyst with the Italian club and like De Bernardin and Alvarez, has worked with Maresca in his past two jobs.
All six are currently out of work having departed Chelsea when Maresca was axed in January and it would be no surprise to see the sextet join City as part of the new-look coaching staff.